Sweet Memories
by crystalessences
Summary: "The look of betrayal in his red eyes instantly made me feel guilty. Somehow I had betrayed him yet I had no clue as to how I had done it." After the big secret gets out Carina finds a betrayed Silver. This gets her thinking about their bittersweet memories. This is their story. (Side story to Challenge Seeker)T because Silver has a bad mouth and is a sore looser


**So this is a side story to my other pokemon fic Challenge Seeker but that does not mean you have to have read that to read this one. There are obvious connections between the two but this is its own story. Thanks for reading, I own nothing but Carina's character.**

**~Crystal**

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**Chapter 1- Again?**

I wasn't quite sure why my Dad asked me to come with him to Johto. I had just spent the last two years working as a Ranger in Almia and Fiore so I wasn't sure why he would suddenly call me to visit his home region with him. I didn't mind too much. I would get to see the grandparents I hadn't seen since my younger sister, Claire, was born when I was five.

I didn't realize my Dad was implying that I'd be moving into his childhood home in New Bark Town.

This ended up being my fifth move since I turned 8. I turned 13 a week before I moved in.

The day after I moved in I met Gold's family and Professor Elm, my next door neighbors. Gold was fun to hang out with, he reminded me of Brendan, my neighbor for when I lived in Hoenn, except a bit less competitive.

Professor Elm was all over the fact that I had traveled so much. He pried as much info out of me as possible and that had a few issues.

After about a month in Johto I told the Professor about my work on the pokedex projects and my travels as a trainer, a very successful trainer. The Professor promised not to tell anyone, besides Gold (who worked closely with the Professor), but always looked to me when a foreign pokemon came up in his research. Not that I minded much.

"Hey Carina!" I looked up from my book to see Gold sprinting towards me, his partner Marill bounding along behind him.

I had been sitting peacefully out on my deck like any other day, reading while listening to the waves of the nearby ocean. I was starting to thank Dad for making me move in here. I needed the break.

_Ha! I sound like an old geezer. But then again, people are always telling me I act really mature for a 13 year old. _

"Hey Gold." I smile as he slides into the deck chair next to mine. "What's up?"

"The Professor's excited because someone from Cherrygrove has a special egg or something." He shrugs; we both know that the Professor can get excited over the littlest of things. "But that is why I'm here. He asked me to bring you to the lab."

I wondered why he wanted to talk to me but then I figured he wanted me to try and identify the egg. "Sure, why not?" I pick up my book and stand up, sad that I'd have to leave my comfy chair. "Let me put this away first."

Gold nods and stays on the deck as I take the book into the living room, placing it on the nearly empty shelf. Since I was the only one living here it was pretty barren. I hadn't worked super hard to get books for the bookshelf; I usually just borrowed them from the library in Cherrygrove instead. Most of the furniture had been left here when my grandparents moved into their little cottage on the far side of town (which wasn't very far at all, New Bark Town was smaller than TwinLeaf Town).

'Mar-ill!' I looked down to see Marill poking at my sandals.

I laughed, sometimes she would randomly take interest in something I was wearing, and today it was my sandals. "Come on." I smiled, picking her up "Let's get going."

Back out on the deck Gold laughed when I told him the Marill liked my sandals. "I can understand why, they're very stylish."

We were silent for a moment before cracking up. Gold doubled over, holding his stomach as he laughed. I held Marill a little tighter as I laughed too, a single tear coming from my eye as my smile couldn't get any bigger. Marill, not knowing what had made us start laughing, looked at us with curious eyes, trying to figure it out.

"Come on Gold. We should get going."

"You want to what?"

"I want to give you a pokemon." The Professor stated again.

"But why?"

"Because I need someone to run an errand in Cherrygrove and since you don't have a pokemon and you can't go alone, I'm giving you a pokemon."

"Why not send Gold then?"

"He already has an errand, one that he already left for."

"Professor Elm, it makes me happy that you trust me with one of your study pokemon but I came to Johto to relax, not to get pulled into another pokemon league. And honestly I don't need to make my life any more complicated than it already is."

"I understand but your Father did ask for this." Elm explains "He wanted you to see more pokemon, to broaden your boundaries and to become the best Champion you can be."

I stood and thought for a minute. For once Dad was encouraging me to be a trainer, to work with pokemon. Five years ago I would have been overjoyed, especially when I grew up with him saying I would never be a trainer. Now, I had seen a lot more than I had at 8 and I didn't feel like I should see any more. I didn't want it anymore; I didn't want any more secrets.

But Dad wanted me to do this. That meant he wasn't babying me anymore. Was it time that I grew up? Maybe it was time to stop running. That's what he meant.

He wanted me to face this world head on.

I knew I had to. I had to become the best Champion I could be so that I could prove to him that Professor Birch and my Mom had made the right decision allowing me to leave home. I would prove to him that I was worthy of my pokemon.

"Fine." I held up my hands in defeat, "I'll do it."

"Good because I already got your trainer card registered." He passed me my card.

"How did you get my old trainer card?" I asked, looking at the familiar piece of plastic.

"Your mother sent it over from Sinnoh so I could register you under the Johto regulations."

"Huh." I checked out the added symbol next to my picture, the Johto stamp next its Hoenn and Sinnoh counter parts. My picture was fairly recent, the Ranger Union had to update my data-base so they'd taken one right before I'd left, apparently the Professor had gotten a hold of it and used it for my trainer card.

I looked back towards the sandy haired Professor, "Anything else?"

"Beside your pokemon, no." He shook his head while leading me farther into the lab. We ended up in front of a capsule, three pokeballs sat on the shiny metal, just waiting to be opened.

"So we have Cyndaquil, the fire mouse pokemon, Chikorita, the leaf pokemon and Totodile, the big jaw pokemon."

I looked at the case as I thought. My first pokemon had been Mudkip. I had worked well with him because he was a hardy pokemon with good defense stats. My second pokemon had been Chimchar who I had gotten along splendidly with. His fun loving attitude was definitely what my shy 10 year old self had needed and his brute strength and speed worked well with my battling style. I was leaning towards Cyndaquil, I felt comfortable with fire types and I loved working with them. I had raised a Flareon, a Rapidash, a Vulpix and an Arcanine, I was quite confident with them. But was Cyndaquil the right choice for me? I was used to Infernape who could use fight type moves along with fire and Swampert could use ground and water moves. I liked combo pokemon yet these three were plain and simple. Maybe I could try something else? Dad did say he wanted me to broaden my perspective.

"I think I'll train Chikorita."

After receiving the pokeball and my task I walked sluggishly back to my house. The town had suddenly become dead silent (not that it was loud in the first place). I was going to miss the simple lifestyle, I kinda liked being in one place for extended periods of time.

I then started to think about what I would need for my travels and I had very little of it. I had left all of my supplies at home in Sinnoh, I had very little here at home too. I would maybe be able to scrounge up some pokemon food and a sleeping bag and tent but that was probably it. I wouldn't be able to buy anything here either, the closest store was in Cherrygrove.

Reaching the nearly empty building that I called my home I went around back to the lush back yard. In actuality it wasn't much of a yard, it was just a clearing overgrown with grass that ran from the back of the house to the woods. I sat down in the shin length grass and rolled Chikorita's pokeball around in my hands. This would mark the start of my new adventure and despite all the convincing I'd already done I was still wary of this new start.

I took a big breath in and tossed the pokeball up, "Come on out Chikorita."

At first I couldn't see the little green pokemon but I soon spotted her leaf poking out of the grass.

_The Professor was telling the truth, she is small._

Her leaf disappeared and I thought for a second she may have run off but a few seconds later I spot the little one peeking at me through the grass.

"It's alright; I'm not going to hurt you." I coo, holding my hand out to her. Her big red eyes met mine and she tilted her head like she was thinking. I assumed she was trying to tell if I was safe to be around or not.

_This would be a lot easier if Espeon was here with me._ I missed my psychic pokemon. She had become a close partner of mine in my Hoenn travels and done well in the Sinnoh league as well. Espeons were always very close with their trainers so it wasn't surprised she had refused to be stuck in her pokeball, instead riding on my shoulders or walking beside me. Because I didn't have her with me I had to gain Chikorita's trust without Espeon telling her I was a friendly trainer.

"I'm your trainer now." She inched forward, "My names Carina." She inched forward some more and sniffed my hand. "See, I'm not so scary am I?"

'Chiko!' She cried before rubbing against my hand.

I laughed, her leaf tickled as it rubbed against my arm. She stopped, looking at me for a few second before she started laughing too.

"Aww! You're so cute!" I smiled, picking her up and hugging her. To my surprise she nuzzled into my neck with another 'Chiko'.

After I finished our little 'bonding session' I brought Chikorita into the house. I need to grab some lunch before we headed off to the next town and gather anything I could find.

I gobbled down a sandwich and an apple while Chikorita nibbled on her pokemon food that Gold's Dad had given me (since I didn't have any at home).

I then ran upstairs and rummaged through my closet. I wouldn't be able to travel in a skirt, that much was obvious.

I ended up with my black shorts (like super short, shorts) with yellow trim on the end from my ranger uniform along with some black spandex (that went down to about normal shorts length), a grey tank top and a black half jacket (for when it got cooler). I pulled my semi-wavy brown hair into a bun and topped everything off with a black bandana functioning as a headband. I laced up my running shoes for the first time in over a month and I loved the feeling of having them on again.

I grabbed a backpack from one of the boxes I had neglected to unpack and started to fill it with supplies. I didn't need everything; even walking you could get to Cherrygrove and back in half a day. Being it was only noon I knew I could make the trip. I packed a few potions I found lying around in my Dad's study, a flashlight (in case it got dark early) a few extra sandwiches (in case I got hungry or wasn't home in time for dinner) Chikorita's left over food, my pokegear and pokesketch (two of the few things I had brought with me from Sinnoh) an extra rain jacket and my national pokedex (again, one of the few things I brought with me).

I felt prepared and Chikorita seemed excited to go too so we set off from home, ready for whatever challenges we could find.

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